Mass arrests in US, demos spread worldwide

NEW YORK - Thousands of 'Occupy Wall Street protesters flooded New Yorks Times Square Saturday afternoon to oppose an economic system that the activists say isnt providing for the '99 per cent of American citizens, leading to the arrest of 92 people. The demonstration drew thousands during what organisers called a global day of action against Wall Street greed. The protesters marched from the financial district to the Times Square in a show of force, disrupting traffic on busy Manhattan streets. Banks got bailed out, we got sold out protesters chanted Saturday from within police barricades. There were placards reading debt is slavery, in a gentle way you can change the world, and We are not anonymous. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel the crowds away. It was one of the largest demonstrations yet from the movement, which has camped out in a Lower Manhattan park since Sept 17 to protest, among other causes, unemployment as well as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Saturdays arrests marred what police said was a largely orderly march to the heart of Midtown Manhattan from the protests headquarters in the Financial Districts Zuccotti Park. The march came a day after the privately owned parks landlord backed down from an attempt to temporarily move the demonstration. The protesters in Times Square came from around the country and many were not part of the park encampment. The demonstration in New York came as protesters staged large marches in cities around the world. Beth Bogart, a spokeswoman for Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park, said New York protesters were communicating with those movements but not coordinating their actions. Theres no worldwide anti-capitalist network, unfortunately, Ms Bogart said. There are always a few knuckleheads, but for the most part everyones happy, said Deputy Inspector Daniel Mulligan. More than 100 people were injured Saturday in Rome, where as many as 200,000 people gathered, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Sunday. Twelve people were arrested. Eight people were arrested in London Saturday after protesters were barred from entering Paternoster Square, home to the London Stock Exchange. Six of the people arrested were charged, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. More than 250 people camped out overnight in the plaza in front of St Pauls, organizers said, and 87 tents remained at midday. Banners attached to the tents included signs reading People Before Profit and The People are Too Big to Fail, while protesters made speeches from the steps of the cathedral using megaphones. Demonstrators plan to stay as long as it takes, Spyro van Leemnen, a supporter of Occupy London Stock Exchange, said in a telephone interview. The cathedral is on the edge of the citys financial district. Sydney, Toronto and other cities also saw protests in support of the month-old movement, which organizers say represents the the 99 per cent, a nod to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitzs study showing the top 1 per cent of Americans control 40 per cent of US wealth. In Hong Kong, protests extended for a second day on Sunday after about 40 demonstrators slept overnight in a foyer beneath the HSBC building in the central financial district. Armed with tents, bullhorns and a gas-powered generator used to help them recharge their laptops, the protesters occupied the public thoroughfare under the building as about a dozen police stood by. Demonstrations were also held in Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo. Wall Street has a campaign to start asking questions about capitalism but this is not enough, said Derrick Benig, a 22-year-old art student who slept in a tent overnight in Hong Kong. I want to tear down capitalism. Agencies add: Chicago police arrested about 175 protesters early Sunday in an operation to clear the citys Grant Park of demonstrators camping out in protest against corporate greed, police said. A police department spokesman said the Occupy Chicago protesters were given several warnings to leave the park before officers moved in and began hauling them away. They were in park property after hours, said Officer Robert Perez. There is a municipal ordinance that nobody is allowed in the park after 11 pm. He said about 175 people were arrested and taken to a district police station for processing. Typically people arrested for violating city ordinances are then released under their own signature unless they are wanted for other offenses, he said. The Chicago Tribune said protesters, who had formed a human chain and were seated on the ground when the police moved in, were cheering as they were hauled away in police paddy wagons and city buses. About 150 other protesters continued the demonstration from across the street on Michigan Avenue, it reported. At one point, protesters began chanting the whole world is watching, evoking a now famous cry that went up during a violent confrontation between protesters and police at Grant Park during the 1968 Democratic Convention. Demonstrators also walked to a Chase bank branch in support of the 14,000 workers sacked by the lender in the wake of cutbacks made after a government bailout totaling $94.7 billion. Students, families with strollers and trade unionists marched towards Wall Street carrying placards, chanting: We are the 99 percent, We are the people and Mr Obama we need your support. Families joined the march and tourists on several open-top buses cheered on the protesters by making the V for victory sign. The Occupy Wall Street movement was buoyed by a decision Friday to halt plans to evict protesters from New Yorks Zuccotti Park, which they have called home for a month. In Washington, between 2,000 and 3,000 people assembled at the National Mall on the eve of the inauguration of a memorial to slain Nobel peace laureate Martin Luther King, Jr. Veteran activist Al Sharpton chimed in: Occupy Wall Street, occupy Washington, occupy Alabama Weve come to take our country back to the people. In Miami, a city that rarely hosts mass demonstrations, at least 1,000 people marched downtown. The crowd included youth and retirees standing up against corporations, banks and war. Hollywood actor Sean Penn became the latest celebrity to offer his backing to the movement, saying on CNN late Friday: I applaud the spirit of what is happening now on Wall Street. Sergio Jimenez, 25, said he quit his job in Texas to come to New York to protest. He participated in an anti-war march to mark the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War. These wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all based on lies, Jimenez said. And if were such an intelligent country, we should figure out other ways to respond to terror, instead of with terror. Nearly 1,500 protesters gathered for a march past banks in downtown Orlando, Fla. Hundreds marched on a Key Bank branch in Anchorage, and declared it be foreclosed. In Arizona, reporters and protesters saw an estimated 40 people detained around midnight Saturday at a park just north of downtown Phoenix. In Colorado, about 1,000 people rallied in downtown Denver to support Occupy Wall Street and at least two dozen were arrested. Nearly 200 people spent a cold night in tents in Grand Circus Park in Detroit, donning gloves, scarves and heavy coats to keep warm. Helen Stockton, a 34-year-old certified midwife from Ypsilanti, said they planned to remain there as long as it takes to effect change. Hundreds more converged near the Michigans Capitol in Lansing with the same message, the Lansing State Journal reported. Rallies drew young and old, laborers and retirees. In Pittsburgh, marchers included parents with children in strollers. The peaceful crowd stretched for two or three blocks. In Canada more than 10,000 blew bubbles, strummed guitars and chanted anti-corporate slogans at peaceful protests in cities across the country. There were smaller mostly peaceful protests also in Amsterdam, Geneva, Miami, Montenegro, Paris, Sarajevo, Serbia, Vienna and Zurich, with protesters chanting anti-capitalist slogans and wearing satirical masks. In Mexico, Peru and Chile, thousands also marched to protest what they slammed as an unfair financial system and stagnant unemployment. Hundreds also set up camp outside Australias central bank in Sydney.